November 25: ORD

Today is November 25th. It's the 330th day of the year. 36 days remain. It's week 48 of the year.

Unless noted, the following data is based upon observations collected by the National Weather Service, Chicago, at O'Hare International Airport (ORD) between November 1978 and last year. Observations have been official at O'Hare since Thursday, January 17, 1980.

According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the normal high is 42 and the normal low is 28. The 30-year averages are 44 and 29.

On the warm side, in 1988 the high was 57 with a low of 42. A decade later, in 1998, the high was 53 with a low of 46. A year earlier, in 1997, the high was 57 with a low of 37. Two years ago the high was 58 with a low of 36. Another warm high was 54 in 1984. Another warm low was 42 in 2001. There's only one 60s high and that was in 1966 (see below). The record high of 65 was set in 1908 and record warmest low of 49 was set in 1915. 28 of the last 30 highs were in the 30s (8), 40s (11) and 50s (9). Two highs were in the 20s.

In looking back through the years to the first November at O'Hare in 1958, the following instances were notable. In 1976 the high was 60 with a low of 34. In 1976, after the nice warm-up, temperatures plummeted to lows of 6 on the 28th, 1 on the 29th and 6 on the 30th. In 1973 the high was 45 with a low of 39 (a six degree spread). In 1972 the high was 37 with a low of 33 (a four degree spread). In 1966 the high was 62 with a low of 34 (the only 60s high at O'Hare so far). In 1964 the high was 52 with a low of 19 (a 33 degree spread).

More recently, the spread was four degrees in 1993 (42/38), five degrees in 1987 (42/37), seven degrees in 1992 (46/39) and seven degrees in 2001 (49/42).

On the cold side, in 1991 the high was the record coldest high of 24 with a low of 13. Three years ago the high was 27 with a low of 13. Another cold low was 19 in 1982. Other cold highs were 31 in 2002 and 32 in 1996. The record low of 0 was set in 1950. 24 of the last 30 lows were 20s (12) and 30s (12). Three lows were 10s and three were 40s.

The following astronomical data is provided by the United States Naval Observatory. In Crystal Lake, twilight begins at 6:25 and sunrise is at 6:56. Chicago's twilight and sunrise times are three minutes earlier. Sunset is at 16:24 and twilight ends at 16:55. Chicago's sunset time is a minute earlier and end of twilight is two minutes earlier. There's a total of 9 hours, 28 minutes of daylight today and 10 hours, 30 minutes between twilights. Tomorrow twilight begins at 6:26 and sunrise is at 6:57. The moon is waning crescent and heading towards the new moon on Thanksgiving Day at 10:55. Illumination was 6% at midnight, will be 4% at noon and 2% at midnight tonight. Moonrise was at 5:07. Moonset is at 14:50 and moonrise is at 6:11 tomorrow morning. Moonlight time is 9 hours, 43 minutes today.

Thanksgiving is in two days. A sister of mine, Regina, will celebrate a birthday in 19 days and Bill of Rights day is in 20 days. -Bernie-